Times Haven't Changed Much
There are probably many different ways to say what I want to say (and I've said some of them inside this Torah Tidbits), but let's put it this way: The Arab terrorists are the Balak & Bil'am of today (there are better analogs than B&B, but there's a point to make about Parshat Balak), and road accidents are the women of Moav and the worship of Baal P'or of today.

The analogy is weak and won't stand close scrutiny, so don't look carefully — just get the point.

Sichon and Og couldn't make a scratch in the people. Neither could Bil'am and Balak. They all tried. (Other enemies of Israel have taken a heavy toll on us; that's why the analogy to the terrorists is weak. But remember, there's a point here.) We got through 95 p'sukim of Balak unscathed. In the final 9 p'sukim, we showed ourselves to be our worst enemies. And with that we do have a strong point of comparison to road accidents in our time. As terrible as it is for people to be shot and killed by our enemies, look at what we are doing to ourselves on the roads. The death toll and the number of injured each week far exceeds to casualty rate from terrorism.

Our death toll from the last 9 p'sukim of the sedra was 24,000! That's how it ends. It's as if those who divided up the sedras wanted that number to become engraved upon our minds. They did not want the reward to Pinchas to cloud the issue. Message from Parshat Balak: The most powerful prophet and wizard of the ancient world could not touch us. But our own betrayal of G-d did us in.

Cease fire yes, cease fire no. War, peace. Add up all the casualties. The number pales in comparison to what happens on Israel's roads every week. Enough said? Probably not. While our government figures out the best way to deal with Arafat and company, we have to figure out how to stop the terrible MAGEIFA of the roads.

And that's not all. We've got a lot of house cleaning to do. While we must remain vigilant against our enemies from the outside, we must examine the causes of our troubles that we can attribute to ourselves as the cause. It boils down to Torah observance, Torah values, a Torah culture that will guide us properly out of all our problems. Sounds simplistic. Naive. Maybe, but G-d has said it enough times in the Torah for us to take Him seriously. If we follow in His ways... if we keep the mitzvot... if we treat each other properly... then all the blessings in the world will be ours. It takes a lot of education and a lot of hard work, but it can be done.